Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, which is already embroiled in one of the biggest controversies to hit the cryptocurrency world in years, has added some new problems to the list.
Earlier this month, the company lost access to at least $144 million in Bitcoin and other cryptos (some reports place it as high as $195 million, when missing cash is added in) when the company founder reportedly died and was the only person with the password to the cryptocurrency wallets. Now, officials say, the exchange accidentally misplaced another $500,000 Canadian ($352,783 in U.S. Dollars).
QuadrigaCX kept customers’ crypto wallets in “cold storage“—an offline method of holding cryptocurrency that is designed to protect the holdings from hackers. When owner Gerald Cotten died last December, he was reportedly the only one who knew how to access the facility, according to his widow. (Many people have questioned both that story and whether Cotten is actually dead. Several lawsuits are pending.)
As it turns out, the exchange also kept $679,516 in assets in online wallets. And someone at QuadrigaCX “inadvertently” transferred about half of that into the cold storage earlier this month, Ernst and Young has informed Canadian officials.
That, of course, is fueling skepticism about the company’s original story.
Officials were scheduled to name a “representative counsel” for affected investors and creditors on Thursday, part of a process that should allow entities that are insolvent because of the QuadrigaCX scandal to continue to operate without filing for bankruptcy while putting together a plan to pay off their own creditors.
The exchange was shut down on Jan. 28